Sleep Worshiping
You shall have no other gods before Me. Exodus 20:3 NASB
No other – “The vast majority of people are satisfied with compromises, or they remain unaware that they are worshipping a multitude of gods, that their actions constitute a maze of contradictions.”[1] Are you part of the “vast majority”? Living with compromises, contradictions and spiritual prejudices because it’s easier. Could you hear yourself saying, “I’m comfortable with what I believe” as a way of avoiding confusion and conflict? Heschel points out that most people are religious because of drift, that is, they float into their beliefs due to tradition, culture, personal experiences or assimilation. Few people actually investigate, decide, evaluate and pursue. Those actions are uncomfortable and the true measure of spirituality is being comfortable, right? No, I don’t think so. It seems to me that the men and women of the Bible who were useful to God and experiencing His presence were typically uncomfortable. Unless there is spiritual tension in life, we exist as sentient protoplasm, doing nothing more than making life as easy as possible one day at a time. But men were created for interaction with the divine, and that always leaves us wanting.
Let’s consider Heschel’s observation. Perhaps you might list a few of the more obvious compromises you have accepted. Life seems to offer plenty of them. Living in community probably necessitates a few—and they aren’t bad for us. Voluntary compromise is part of character growth. But not when it comes to worshipping the one true God. There’s no compromise in that arena. Relationship to Him requires truehearted devotion. In Hebrew, the expression is lo yihye lecha elohim acherim. “Not shall you have gods other.” The strongest possible prohibition at a very personal level. But what does this mean? For those who follow YHVH, it must mean living in accordance with commitment to one and only one God. No assimilation of the ways of other gods. No syncretism. No accommodation. No deviation.
It might be worthwhile to do a serious inventory of our worship behavior. Do we follow His instructions or are we practicing what seems comfortable to us? Do we even know what He requires? Or have we simply adopted what we have always done before? Do we know where the ideas of our worship practice actually came from? Have we asked why we do it this way?
Or are we sleep-walking our worship?
Topical Index: worship, no other gods, drift, Exodus 20:3
[1] Abraham Heschel, A Passion for Truth, p. 91.
Oh, questioning the paradigm! In your book, Skip, God, Time, and the Limits of Omniscience, you point out that our Greek paradigm got pasted onto God. What is that paradigm and how does it manifest today? You critically examined some of the aspects of it; notably the Greek notions of perfection, immutability, eternity, omniscience, omnipotence (from a Greek point of view), to name the main ones. Where does this paradigm come from and how does it affect worship? The Greeks worshiped ATTRIBUTES directly; that is, they constructed ideal forms (see above list for examples). For example, they worshiped the ideal form they called beauty. All things, then, that conformed to that form, and to the extent that they did conform, were worthy of worship. God, then, to a Greek, is worthy of worship BECAUSE He conforms to these ideal attributes. We would say today that He is worthy of worship because He IS ______(fill in the blank with your fav attributes). We don’t even question this approach, or, paradigm. Sigh. We have made gods of Greek forms, and required God to answer to them. Perhaps we should start here?
Still miles away from examining those worship FORMS (is that Greek, or what?) that you are asking us to look at. Perhaps we are struggling with forms of worship because we already have God in a box (form), or, many boxes.
Not quite sure how to respond to your comment. I can say that it seems to me that Hebrew is a VERBAL view of the world, that is, it is tied to what happens, what is intended, what we do; rather than the Greek view of rational articulation, the NOUNS of existence, the things. So worship is doing, and not just doing in “religious” mode but doing in all that is done, as opposed to the Greek view of thinking and saying the correct things, the right prayers, the right confessions and creeds. It is probably more like God to give a cup of water than recite a salvation prayer.
And you are up pretty early, aren’t you?
Well, I hope I am not sleep worshiping! Yes, you got my point. God, as function, not form. All forms come from function. Function is the original cause; forms are derivatives. Function, then, should be the focus of worship. Love is function, and you are right, it is action, or verb. Other gods, then, are derivatives, or, multiples, even, of that original Cause. Greek ideal forms would be derivatives, or descriptions, then, of function. “Beautiful”, then, would describe the function. The Greeks put the cart before the horse. The First Command tells me not to do that. Don’t look to the effects and get them confused with the cause. I think we start chasing rabbits (other gods) when we become enamored with results, or, forms of fruit and forget that only love can produce anything.
Laurita.
If I understand you and Skip correct worship is not about proclaiming magnificent or beauty etc. But rather found in doing the things that bring about the end results we consider worthy in our lives…
How different will this be from fake it until you make it… Let’s pretend we are doers until we become doers as it takes a few days (21) to create a new habit…
I can understand where you are going with it Skip but I have to tell you two faults of mine when I do have this approach. 1) 90% of what I believe about God has been completely wrong in the past 10 years of my life. That was now willingly – I thought I was correct at the time. That is all encompassing, from how to approach, to how celebrate holidays (Christmas Easter vs Passover etc), what constitutes as appropriate prayer etc. 2) Analysis paralysis is a real thing.
I have in the past worshiped and practiced all things that I thought was ‘real’ after doing inventory only to find out when I was ‘being a good Christian’ I was wrong. And on the other side I have studied so much into certain things it led me being afraid to have a relationship with God because, “I didn’t want to step on Gods toes” figuratively speaking.
I understand the merit that you are speaking about, at the same token isn’t there a level of understanding if you live in America in the 21st century (not a place where there camels tracking around), if you don’t speak Hebrew etc, you are going to make mistakes and you are going to be able to do the best you can in the circumstances where you are at? Also to be careful what you think is, “Truth” with a capital, ‘T’, because in fact you are most likely wrong. There is, “my understanding’ and, ‘my impression’ and, ‘this is my interpretation’. With that there can be convictions but with the ability to allow yourself to be wrong. Or did I miss something?
You didn’t miss anything. Believing is discovering you were wrong and going on anyway. “To believe is to remember.” Heschel. That is not just to remember what God did for others. It is also to remember what He did for you while you were wandering in the wilderness.
Hello Skip and Eric, do I understand this correctly, sometimes Association can be a bad thing, first we are told to be around those of like faith, second those others can lead one astray it’s not follow the leader only Paul says problem me as I follow Christ! So my first question is how do we correctly follow someone who is following? We all need the same map. And when we see camel tracks why are they there why are the altars there? Part of my assumption is faith is in the words of the songs we sing there lies one problem we are saying it but in our head and half-heartedly repetition should sink in! I saw a ancient picture of someone worshipping it was quite a reminder hope what I read in the scriptures, curled up in a ball and sometimes face down. Then I started listening to Skip’s teachings on prayer, the percentages are close to what I remember and they cause me to think , if Greek vs. Hebrew 25%but the Greek scriptures associated with prayer while 75%of Hebrew scriptures are associated with prayer what makes the difference? Not only Greek culture versus culture but also the difference of the two thought processes. What I think Skip meant was the point of interaction with the mind or the Creator? If our prayers are coming from our thought process our thought process must be reviewed through God’s intentions of the application through our heart leading to the actions of our hands. Simple question sleep or sleeping Walking Dead , hypnotize, in a trance, the blind leading the blind. I think I’m on the right track.
Skip and Derek, not Skip and Eric, many apologies.
Yawn! did somebody say something?
Worshipping is one of the hardest concepts to understand with prayer a close second then service, etc. I look around where I stand and all forms of ‘worship’ is a reenactment of something someone else declares as such. I know all attempts to draw closer to God start at the heart (intent) and it seems as any attempt at doing it as I see it being done now is reenactment (or tradition if you like).
‘…tell us how to pray’ really? from the mouth of those who had a couple of thousand years before that question to Yeshua, to get it right? You think nothing less was discussed about that then, as it is the subject of thousands of books in our arena? That scares the h… out of me. God, how do I communicate?
Worship might be an easier subject, it’s written in stone.
Yeshua said take upon my yoke for it is light and easy and it is not to burdensome for you. Whatever the translation properly interprets. I see this as a heartfelt plea to take up his burden and give up mine and this would not be too hard. After all he is the Living God full of Mercy
Marc Turnage (Windows into the Bible) offers some insight to that burden as being the burden of Torah and not the burden of Government and men. Sort of the two master idea. Torah, as difficult as our struggles may be (ask Paul and that thorn in his side) shows to be obedient as our way to worship God. The ‘not too burdensome’ is right out of Deuteronomy.
But, to worship is the same as to work or tend, ie, what you put your hands to. The issue is settled in the observation of whether equity (justice) is being sought out in our dealings with people and the “inanimate” objects concerning us, no matter what we declare with our mouths. Maybe the myriad of books concerning this subject is mostly about justifying ourselves. The Messiah told some people who their father was according to the work (worship) they displayed and even though the adversary wrongly claimed ownership of the kingdoms of this world (the earth is the Lords and the fullness thereof) the truth is that he is in fact receiving mens worship according to their activities. That’s called ruler ship by concession, not by right.
You sound really frustrated Richard. It is all confusing when we question the paradigm we have labored under most of our religious lives. When I start to overthink things like you mentioned in your post, I get nervous and frustrated. Just makes me nuts!
B.B. offered a really good reminder about Jesus’s yoke being light and not burdensome. Indeed. I look around at all the various religions (I live in the middle of a lot of Anabaptist groups like Amish, Mennonite, German Baptist etc) and I see heavily burdened people who at the root are not happy people. Protestants are no better in this regard.
I have my own struggles but I have found for myself that letting go of others expectations and simply worshiping God by acknowledging Him and all that He has created is freeing.
Man’s traditions are always suspect in my mind and I tend to avoid em. That might be because I am a rebel or maybe because I don’t see God in em!
“Not all those who wander are lost.”
Carry on Richard, you are not alone 🙂
Not really frustrated Dawn but thanks for your encouragement! I actually am excited more than ever in the pursuit of God’s will as I think I have come to recognize the purity of Torah through the fog of religion. Not having fully grasped it, I feel fortunate to live in an age of massive resources and a growing awareness that most of those resources are corrupt.
Robert L. mentions the work of worship/hands and I agree. But I look at the life of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with the learning curve they struggled with as opposed to such as Joshua who seemingly unquestioning went into the surrounding communities and completely slaughtered all…can you see the women begging for mercy as they held their children? And that seems to be a pending repetition to come…
Fear, Love, Obedience, I only struggle with one.
I hear you Richard!
In May I intend to teach several lessons about the book of Judges when I am in Virginia. I think it opens the door to seeing the stories of Joshua and the conquest in a different light. I will be sure to record these.
Maybe a topic for Sarasota Skip?
This is very near to the cry of my heart, Skip. I get so unbelievably tired of hearing exhortations to “worship Him” on Sundays, with zero time spent teaching on how worship is truly defined. Perhaps I am too simplistic in my thinking, but I don’t understand how leaders can conflate Hebraic praise (all variations) with Hebraic worship…even after they have been shown the differences in scripture. The unrelenting grip on the Greek paradigm confuses me.
I have been pondering this idea of relational tension as you continue to write about it and speak about it. (I’m incredibly thankful for YouTube because I’m not sure I would have ever had the opportunity to hear you speak without it.) I may be way off base, but I am beginning to think that we actually find Him in the tension. It is in those times of struggle where we meet YHWH. For an example, the Torah portions of Vayakhel and Pekudei allude to one of these “tensions” of life. This particular struggle is with the responsibility of community juxtaposed against the responsibility of the individual. If we lean too far to either side, we become dysfunctional. It is in the tension between the two where we meet our Father and find His balance and our place in life. So often we try to alleviate the strain instead of seeking out the struggle and finding Him.
Thank you for these recent posts . For me we are getting close to the heart of the matter evil desires overcome buy Godly desires. Matt Redman song still on the charts I’m coming back to the Heart of Worship. Speaks about I’m sorry for the thing I’ve made it many people think it’s plural the things I’ve made it, but he is introducing returning to proper worshiip . Coming current and active. In the process of. Yahweh is always encouraging Israel the sons of Jacob to return major word returning many blessings follow Israel when they return or attempt to return little King Josiah I think it was him as a teenager he found the Torah hidden in the closet and he prayed and fasted and was used to help Israel return. I love that story.
Your comment resonated with me on more than one level. Modern “praise and worship music” in Christendom is formulaic, many times using the same chord sequence for maximal emotion effect, while sporting egocentric ‘me, me, me’ lyrics. Might as well be singing Janis Joplin’s “Mercedes Benz” (“Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz…”). Coincidentally, I’m on an email list of this ‘church planter’, who sent an article titled Satan has a plan to infiltrate and defile the modern worship movement. I think it’s already been done…
In a general sense, I agree that we find God “in the tension”. This occurs, as you state, in community/individuality, in life experiences, in doctrinal differences, etc.
Craig, you could not have said it better for me if you tried. I, too, have heard the “me me me” focus in the modern humanistic approach, and it stinks to the world, by the way. It doesn’t even make good music. Good music relies on that tension, too. Thank you for such a whole hearted comment.
For a satirical look at the sad state of affairs in “praise and worship”, do a search for babylonbee + worship. Babylonbee is a site satirizing the sad state of Christendom.
What happens to the “before me”…
Faith is hear and do, worship and service is the do… So what is the hear part as that then seems to be how we place something before God by lending out our ears expecting to get them back without affecting what I do…
Seeker, that may only be a problem if you are not speaking Hebrew. We translate “shema” into two words, “hear” and “do”, but shema is one concept, not two. Shema is extreme mutual trust. The speaker trusts that the hearer will do, and the hearer trusts that the speaker knows what they are talking about. Any lag time when it comes to responding to information has to do with evaluating the information, but we only feel the need to evaluate if we think that the information has not already taken our interests into consideration. For example, a disobedient child is one who does not trust that the parent, say, either knows what they are talking about, really means what they are saying, or has taken the child’s best interests into consideration in the command. That disobedience, however, can also be driven by the child feeling that the parent does not trust the child. Any and all of the above can lead to sedition.
I subscribed years ago to a little home ministry about training children called “No Greater Joy”. It saved my sanity and my kids loved the concepts. The Pearl family focused on obedience that relied on trusting their children. For example, they would lay a gun on the floor in front of their 18 mth old and tell her not to touch it. Instead of childproofing their house, they gunproofed their children. The story my children liked the most, however, was the one where Mr. Pearl was teaching his children about what to do if there was an immediate danger while they were driving down the road. I forget the particulars, but it was an incident where they were going down their country road (not too fast, I presume) and he thought something was really about to go wrong with the truck. He opened his mouth and started to tell his children that they needed to get out of the truck. Before he could finish the sentence, explain the problem or even slow down both the kids that were with him had gone flying out of the truck window. That, y’all, is definitely “shema”.
Amen Miss Hayes I have heard it put simply the Shema is the Declaration of faith that serve under the banner of Messiah
Thank you Laurita and Brett…
Faith is one concept – the gift from God.
The ability you refer to is based on a relationship that already exists gunproofing the children is well used here. A relationship of teaching the truth so that the truth can guide and control the lives of those being taught…
The truth is that God was restoring a damaged relation when he sent Moses as well as when he sent Jesus… (And when he sends others to cross our paths or directs our paths to cross with others) For this to happen the trust relationship is not present but a hope based relationship.
A desire from God to save a nation and the nations consistent plea, dreams or prayers to be saved from their predicament… The only way to do that was a blind trust as the jumping out the window… As did Daniel and all the other servants we read of in the bible… This would explain the Hebraic view but is it still needed today?
What I do accept is that 90% people just partake in worship and religious activities because the requirements or conditions predict it… Would we be praying and glorifying God if there was no advantage in doing it for us, not eternal life that which keeps hope alive in all religious doctrines. So is this faith based worship (hear and do) or cognitive based worship know, understand and do… Which one would really create the family relationship between me and God?
I know God exists, I know he created everything, I know he sent numerous individuals to try and restore a relationship… The problem is I do not understand the relationship as it all seems to focus on mans desires and aspirations as everyone teaches others God will save, god will help god will do this and that… Is this not more sleep-worshipping as we are still not taught what is God and what is His purpose with this creation.
Save – why, we all die eventually. And how can we justify the need as he created us with a purpose and not with a generation intent…
Revive after life in eternal life – why if the soul is spirit, has no definable shape, cannot be identified in the form we know today why will it make any difference.
Here religious views and teachings have not gained my support as they do not explain anything worthy of God’s will but only worthy of promoting their existence and necessity.
You ask teach us Torah that is really but teaching us a life attitude. Is this really the only thing God desires from us to understand and worship Him. Or is it more about humbling unto God…
Seeker, the cusp of reality is a strange and extremely uncomfortable place. Welcome! We are all sweating just as hard as you, each in our own special way, I am sure. Those of us who try to hang out here, that is.
I think people invented religion to avoid having to check out the edge for themselves. We are all called like Abraham to leave our comfy origins and seek a far country. That would make each of us a religion of exactly one; highly individualized application of general guidelines of Torah. Organized religion, however, I have noticed tends to get this backwards. It attempts to formalize guidelines and generalize application. You had better accede to the doctrine exactly so, but love? Do that however you think you want to. Arghhh!
Yo Laurita,
You remind me of Skips post Tough Love the one post I could easy relate with.
Unfortunately I may be too relaxed in my comfy zone… but keep finding myself considering a farm with log cabins, self sustaining garden and natural water source… With a community supporting the farm maintenance and sustaining a Yeshiva mindset talking debating agreeing and disagreeing on the records without blaming or accusing each other…
Then I am reminded of all the murders taking place on our farms…
Similar community vision here, too, Seeker. So many aspects of Torah are not even possible without community involvement at that level. I am committed to doing it, and am, by God’s grace and direction, going that direction. Hard work on the frontier, here I come!
Murder rates on farms are lots lower than freeway ones, but we simply factor those in when we head out onto the road each and every day, don’t we?
Laurita you have it right for American statistics. In Africa the numbers are different…
When I asked Maddie (on this forum), who knows about this problem, she said the murders and unrest are because Africa is reaping what it sowed; i.e. apartheid. That is the kind of thing that you cannot ‘fix’ (avoid) even if you change the law, as I think the Banana Republics have been demonstrating so well for so long. Once the pendulum starts swinging, it does not tend to stop until every farthing has been paid. A caution for our increasingly stratified society, for sure.
You quoted me correctly but let me expand a littlle. Mothers and fathers leaving home very early morning to catch trains and buses to work to return again to taking trains and buses to get home late at night.Kids left home to raise other kids- no nutrition and in many cases no food, no education no running water or plumbing. No God, no hope- WHAT DO YOU EXPECT TO REAP? Barring an intervention by God you get the recipe for hate and murder.
I am a white SouthAfrican who grew up on those beautiful farms and my heart bleeds for the Farmers who are now being slaughtered. Fall on your faces and thank God for all our blessings here in America but WEEP FOR THE NATIONS NOT SO BLESSED
Psalm 82:4 Deliver the poor and needy: rid them out of the hand of the wicked.
Psalm 82:5 They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course.
Good morning Seeker, Shabbat shalom. As Laurita says, welcome to the edge. 🙂 here’s a favorite passage of mine that you might consider in your searching out of these things. One of the issues it helps clarify for me is that “salvation” isn’t just about me and mine or even about eternal life (which I think is a bonus added in order to prevent vanity) but more about the conforming to the Image of God through the expansion of the order of His creation, it goes far beyond me. Just to clarify that statement a bit, the order imposed on creation by God is a reflection of His character and by us, willingly, walking in that order we enter in to a relationship (covenant) with Him and begin to learn by direct experience who God really is. Some of that learning, I’ve found out, is that willing to accomplish something often means that I continue even when I’m unwilling at the moment, and that, expansion is good, but not at the expense of others, that’s what “breaks” the structure of the world we live in. But as to the question of whether it’s necessary in these days, I would say, now more than ever.
YHWH bless you and keep you……
Thank you for the comment Robert.
This Psalm seems to place all the responsibility on God to care and assist…
The psalmist also says somewhere else that he went into the depths of the judgement of God a looked at the ends of the way of those that are self justified on their wealth and comfortable lifestyle… He places their feet on slippery surfaces…
This I do not understand as if I must do something on the one hand to assist those in need and less fortunate how can I keeping saying God will… Or should I understand this verse in relation to its parallel apostolic verse. You that have and see a brethren in need and give him not how can the love of God dwell in you or rather how can such a person claim they love God above all… The same with the faith verses go and be fed or clothed etc. but we provide not. How can we justly say that our faith is complete…
Robert these scripture tend to confuse not because they are unclear but because they make loving God above all very hard and dedicated way of living…
Seeker, the only way that the Law will ever be able to be fulfilled in its entirety is when community is doing it together. We simply do not have the ability to obey it in the singular. In fact, building functioning community IS how we obey it, for only within those communities lie the resources and answers for what the world lacks – including what we lack to be able to obey. Its hard to love your neighbor if you don’t have the kind of community (neighborhood) that produces the right way to relate, for that relating correctly IS that love, but only community can build that opportunity, or, potential for that love. We are trying to digest without intestines and walk without legs otherwise, for in the Kingdom, my digestion depends on others and I walk the same way. Love is not a one way street, which is how we are taught to love in our religious institutions (go out there and evangelize). Love is a network. Different starting point. We cannot go because we cannot start, for the churches are not building these communities. I am beginning to think that only active hardship and persecution can build them, for that is the only time we ever see them.
As the apostolic writings say we have not struggled till the bloodflows… That is deeds to reconcile.
As for apartheid actually english segregation that was the British colonies before the republic the real history reveals, as Christianity is also an European principle… As was all the worldwars so far… But we still are not listening.
Communities that govern themselves cannot grow beyond their paradigms, that needs influence from elsewhere… Tough love in our era…
So to start leaders need to teach the why, show the way and go the way. The bucket and blame needs to stop so that the change can commence.
Who are the leaders, those influencing from behind and not those in the power seats. Those in the power seats are just the scapegoats for those not willing to accept the responsibility that Christ begins within, while religion is all Cremora talk. All on top nothing inside…
Amen Laurita
And if you read the “elohim” that are being spoken to as the rulers of the people, where does that place the responsibility?
Robert as I understand it the rulers of the day should write two Torahs one for the nation to follow and one for them to lead by so that the nation has examples to follow. And it is here that things are corrupted as the leaders do not write a Torah for themselves.
Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely… Leaders do not understand their responsibilities they just accept the status and that has always been the problem.
But the reality is this all begins as Maddie rightly highlights if parents cannot attend to their own the community gets corrupted. So it all begins with every parent to stay responsibly for correcting their children till the day they pass on…
Shabbat Shalom friends about the table. We on the left coast get late it seems to the breakfast table. My wife read me excerpts from Camille Paglia’s book “Sexual Persona” years ago. It was it seems, from my little familiarity with it , a look at cultural icons, dare I say our objects or images of worship. From her observations she noted “the Greeks made God in the image of man, and the Hebrews made man in the image of god”. Considering honestly the roots of our traditions and activities of worship is particularly segnificant as we head toward the holiday of the Babolonian goddess who was the wife of Nimrod whos name I shall not dignify with a mention.
Ok where’s the edit button? A not so minor compromise foisted upon me by technology and inatentiveness is the miss capitalizing of the Greeks god vs the Hebrews God. My sincere apologies to the Diety himself. ..
I’ve found that my “smart phone” ain’t so smart after all, as it constantly attempts to unwrite what I want to right. Clever, however, may be a different issue. ?
Finely the truth is exposed or expressed in our attentiveness to all we say or do and why we say or do it. That to me is the real expression of our worship-fullness.
Well summarized Mark talk with knowledge, do with passion and live by love. Sounds simple yet very difficult in our cognitive world…
Truth….
Shalom
Struggling with gripping and what to hold onto…. As do these hands, my hands know what I am reaching to grip?
Like eternal things embedded in time for us to seek that we may hold for miniscule periods, actual moments outside of what we decree to be truth. Most often I am embedded or entombed in belief and faith that is fictional but a step closer in forming knowing by eliminating another lie to myself. Even though I do not as yet have hands trained how to hold immortality because my hands are more often full of other things.
I ask… How is the trust of faith intuitive in the heart that is deceitful above all things? I am after that heart that is made of the eternal to put the disillusioned and incomplete drummer of death in my chest, aside.
Just came across another place of losing my certainty and it relates to time and the reckoning of it. Psalm 81:3 do I hold onto it and let the other things go or is it just another fiction of intentional translational bias? Is the full moon really the beginning of a month and the time of our feast?
Just another place of contention, when I thought I had grasped comfort.
I have come from xmas and easter & looked deeply into the eyes of Shabbos and the linking of us to Elohim through holding time with the grip of His determining what it should be… instead of our own stratagems of making meaning, making gods.
http://www.uhcg.org/Cal-Fl-Moon/cal-article.html#fn12
The list never seems to get smaller in contending with thoughts and reality.
The 7th day becoming Friday evening to Saturday evening worldwide and the International Dateline becoming a deity worthy of worship in the 1870’s so that in Australia to be a ‘good’ person I should do as the Romans do with time……and keep the 7th day before Jerusalem. Just as Judaism declared.
When waiting actually seems more truthful but judges me as out of step. I contend that the truth goes forth from Zion and now I wait patiently as Sabbath comes to me from His hand Saturday evening to Sunday evening.
Do we know if we bring contention or rebellion? Angst or anger, hope or freedom.
There does not seem to be much growth in seeking community when sleep worshipping is such a communal thing. More like potential for regression. It is selfish by and by. To not be in community denies the challenges to community to awaken further and to awaken my life and that is the forming of a holding hand for His purposes. The strong arm of Heaven to form reality that truly is.
I am grateful.
Shalom F.J. your a man of deed conviction and deep thoughts. I did look at your blog on the biblical calendar and it is a subject that can lead us deep into many trails, not all bring us into the light. The quote that follows in from my blog “Musing about thinking..”
Link removed
True thought for me is to find the answers not to chase more questions. Something to consider..We must guard our thoughts lest we lose our head G.K. Chesterton reminds us…
” The creeds and the crusades, the hierarchies and the horrible persecutions were not organized, as is ignorantly said, for the suppression of reason. They were organized for the difficult defense of reason. Man, by a blind instinct, know that if once things were wildly questioned, reason could be questioned first. The authority of priests to absolve, the authority of popes to define the authority, even of inquisitors to terrify; these were all only dark defenses erected round one central authority, more understandable more supernatural than all – the authority of man to think. We know that this is so; we have no excuse for not knowing it. For we can hear skepticism crashing through the old ring of authorities, and at the same moment we can see reason swaying upon her throne…What peril of morbidity there is for man comes rather from his reason than his imagination. It was not meant to attack the authority of reason; rather it is the ultimate purpose to defend it. For it needs defense”… “The whole modern world is at war with reason; and the tower already reels. The sages, it is often said, can see no answer to the riddle of religion. But the trouble with our state is not that they cannot see the answer; it is that they cannot even see the riddle…In so far as religion is gone, reason is going. For they are both of the same primary and authoritative kind…. They are both methods of proof which cannot themselves be proved. And in the act of destroying the idea of Divine authority we have largely destroyed the idea of that human authority by which we do a long-division sum. With a long sustained tug we have attempted to pull the mitre off pontifical man; and his head has come off with it… you cannot call up any wilder vision than a city in which men ask themselves if they have any selves… We have no more questions left to ask. We have looked for questions in the darkest corners and on the wildest peaks. We have found all the questions that can be found. It is time we gave up looking for questions and began looking for answers” (G.K. Chesterton)
My principle point is regarding over thinking; the circular or manic thought processes that side tracks life, and vitality.
Chesterton in “orthodoxy” lambastes all modern scientifically derived philosophies as non logical or non-sensical; un-reasonable. Suggesting the only reasonable, rational perspective is one based on absolute truth as reveled by God in Yeshua Messiah (Jesus the Christ). Knowledge revealed by Christ is truly understandable, logical, yet also mysterious or mystical. Therefore an answer to all the questions of truth or life.
Hi Skip
If God is One. Can you explain to me who He was talking to in Genesis please. I’m confused?
Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness, and let them rule over . . .” Genesis 1:26
Thanks
Anne
Take a look at JEWISH commentaries on the topic. They have no issue with this.